The Toll
by Doodleniks
Summary: FMA:B Canon. Roy's encounter with the Gate. Canon compliant, mostly.


**AN:** Obligatory 'I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist'. Warning for gore. Critique appreciated, but do remember this is mostly unedited! -raises curtain-

**The Price**

Later, Roy would wonder at how fast it had happened.

He had thought that when he refused to perform human transmutation at the behest of his Lieutenant _(if you perform human transmutation, I'll shoot you) _that there was nothing they could do. A gold toothed doctor and his cronies were all that had been there to face him, and they had fallen. Lieutenant Hawkeye was safe. Riza was safe. Everything had been all right, and for one perfect moment, he could almost forget that there was any danger at all.

The moment didn't last long.

Roy lay pinned under Fuhrer Bradley and Selim like a lab specimen ready for dissection. He could see the transmutation circle formed out of shadow beneath him. The symbols were too familiar. He knew what they were instantly, and fear crushed him.

"Colonel Mustang, you are the fifth." Selim's voice echoed and rebounded on itself, like a unholy chorus of voices speaking at once.

"The last one," Bradley agreed. The transmutation circle roared to life, blue electricity cracking around him. It wasn't fully activated yet, but it was almost there. Roy could feel it tug at him, asking for more power.

"I didn't want to resort to this, but there is no choice. We are out of time." Selim said, deadly calm. "We are going to force you to open the gateway, Colonel Mustang."

Roy choked and roared, "I won't perform human transmutation!" He said it defiantly, but he could feel the circle tug at him, to give in, give in.

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to," Bradley almost rasped. Blood dripped from his shoulder slowly onto Roy, dappling his coat. "An alchemist who has knowledge of human transmutation has been assimilated by Pride. He has the constructional formula." A muffled cry came from a bulging shadow, but Roy did not dare to look at it.

Black tendrils curled around Roy's ankles, legs, neck. He gave a muffled gasp as it choked him. "He's pinned. Move back, Wrath." There was not a trace of sympathy in Selim's face.

Wrath pulled his twin swords from Roy's hands. Pain screamed anew, but Roy did not make a sound. Wrath stepped over him and out of the circle slowly, as if he had all the time in the world. He straightened outside the circle. "Well, now." He eyed Roy. "I wonder what you'll have taken from you?"

Roy couldn't breathe or think from sheer terror. The black tendrils tightened around him, and the transmutation circle blazed stronger despite himself. Roy screamed in the center of the roaring tempest.

"Colonel!" He heard Riza scream. He desperately hoped that she would be safe.

The circle reached it's frenetic climax. Everything went white.

_"COLONEL!"_

And then, very suddenly, Roy was somewhere else entirely.

Roy blinked, teetering slightly on his feet. Somehow, he was upright, in an infinite white space. He couldn't even feel any ground beneath his feet. It took a few stunned moments for it to click. Fullmetal had once told him that when he had performed human transmutation, he had ended up in a white space, with Truth and his Gate. He hadn't said much beyond that. Regardless, this must be where he was. But then, where was Truth?

Something creaked behind him. Roy froze. Painfully slowly, he turned, almost against his will, as if something made him turn.

There stood an all white form that would have been almost invisible against the endless expanse, if not for the tall grey doors behind him. Roy felt weak when he saw the designs carved upon the Gate. They were not identical, but the resemblance to the tattoo on Riza's back was unmistakable.

The Gate slid open soundlessly, revealing a black void. The white figure's previously blank face split open into a grin with too many teeth. Roy stared in horror as into existence blinked a huge grey eye, gazing at him from within the the gates.

Black hands reached out and enveloped him. He didn't even have time to shout.

The Gate slammed shut behind him. Truth sat down on the ground, a rictus smile on his face, and waited.

Roy couldn't even begin to process what was happening around him.

Infinity swirled around him, stretching him immeasurably long and crushing him smaller and smaller. Paradox on paradox roared around him, emptying him and filling him, destroying and rebuilding him. Shuttering snapshots of his own life swirled in the vortex of knowledge, but he didn't even notice. He couldn't. He was being drowned out.

It was as if his head had been split open and information was being poured into his brain, more then he could handle. He lacked cognition, only a passive observer of what was in his brain. Datas and facts and figures and philosophies and more and more until he felt as if there was nothing left of himself, as if there had never been a Roy Mustang at all. And indeed, his body shattered around him, reducing him to the nothingness he really was.

_This was truth. _

Almost as soon as the thought came to him, he was out of it all again. He stood again in front of Truth and the Gate. Roy could barely keep from shaking.

"So, what did you think?" Truth sat cross-legged before him. There was no trace of emotion on his blank form, but Roy wanted to say that he seemed passive, as if he had been through this so many times it was no longer interesting, if it ever had been.

"I..." Roy raced to collect his scattered thoughts. This was it, wasn't it? He would be granted knowledge, and in return, something would be taken. _I never wanted this! _"Please," he said, perfectly aware of how pathetic he sounded. "I was forced, you can't..."

"So you know the price, eh? Sorry, alchemist." The smirk on his face showed no sympathy. "It's equivalent exchange, right?"

Starbursts of pain exploded from behind Roy's eyes. He cried out, and Truth's grin grew wider, and something new on his face formed. An eye, black and stern, stood out against the white. He knew those eyes, he saw them every day, they were _his eyes- _

Roy screamed. Everything went black.

For a brief moment, Edward was relieved when the crackling blue circle formed in the air, just because it was something happening, even if it wasn't something good. The feeling abruptly vanished when it out from it bulged a red torrent that revealed a body. Ed's stomach dropped as the Colonel hit the ground with a thud. He ran to the older man's side, crouching beside him. "Colonel!" Normally, Ed would have greeted him with a 'hey, bastard,' or some sort of insult, but he couldn't bring himself to. All the energy he had for their banter had evaporated. Ed gripped Roy's shoulder. "Are you okay, Colonel? Colonel?" In the background, he could hear Father talking to one of the Homunculi, but Ed ignored them. He was done listening to the bastard harangue about his plans. Instead, he studied Roy. The man was unresponsive, but otherwise seemed fine. His eyes were shut, and he was positioned in a crouch. Ed shook his shoulder. "Wake up, Colonel!"

Finally, Roy roused himself, and Ed couldn't help but feel relieved. "Are you okay, Colonel?"

"Fullmetal...?" Roy sat up slightly, but still did not open his eyes, and he braced a hand against his face. "Where are we?"

"The ringleader's hideout. Colonel, what in the world happened to you?"

Roy swallowed. "I was flung into a white space, before a large gateway."

Ed's world tilted. "Gateway?! You don't mean, something was taken from you!" Ed scanned the Colonel frantically. He seemed perfectly fine. "But your arms and legs are there!" The man seemed to be in perfect physical condition. Ed glanced at his hands. They were bloody, but all the digits were there. For a foolish moment, he wanted to make Roy take his boots off to make sure his feet were there. But no, the way the boots braced against the ground showed that there were still feet. Had it been internal?

"Fullmetal, I'm surprised that you can tell my condition in this darkness." Roy was unnervingly calm.

Ed stared at him blankly. "What are you talking-" he paused. "Your eyes are shut, you bastard."

He did his best to sound unconcerned, and it must have worked, because Roy smiled, ever so slightly. "Hadn't noticed." But he didn't open his eyes.

"Maybe you should open your eyes." Ed turned slightly. Teacher had finally spoken. He had almost forgot she was there. She was oddly taut, face drawn into an uneasy frown. Teacher lost no love on State Alchemists, but this wasn't a time to hang onto old prejudices.

Roy shook his head slightly. "I don't think I want to." His skin was deathly white, like the endless snow at Briggs, Ed realized. While Roy had always been pale, this wasn't natural. His breath came slow and shallow.

Ed sat there, realizing what had happened slowly, and then all at once. "No way!" He hadn't even mean to speak, but it came out in a shocked gasp.

"Open your eyes," Izumi commanded, her veneer of composure stable except for the worry on her face. Roy's shoulders clenched under Ed's hand. He was shaking.

"Colonel," Ed whispered, not even wanting to say it, "open your eyes." He was clenched with terrible fear. Maybe he hadn't paid a toll at all, maybe they were worried for nothing, maybe maybe maybe.

Roy had gone still. For a moment, all was silent, and Ed realized everyone was watching, even that damned bastard Father. Then, very slowly, he opened his eyes.

Ed recoiled in spite of himself, and even his unshakable Teacher gasped. Blood ran like tears down Roy's face, where the empty spaces where his eyes had been.


End file.
